The Center for Asia Pacific Studies is delighted to announce its 2022-2023 Asia Bridge Fellows. This year, the program—now in its fourth year—has expanded to offer USF graduate as well as undergraduate students the benefits of this unique academic and professional opportunity. Coming from variety of majors and schools across the university, the students will explore research projects on an Asia Pacific topic of their choice and participate in a variety of skills- and community-building activities under the guidance of faculty mentors.

This fall, the junior fellows—working with undergraduate coordinator, Dr. Cynthia Schultes—have been busy exploring the academic literature and designing their research projects but have also had time to enjoy center lecture events and community get-togethers such as our monthly tea time socials and a recent student excursion to the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. The new cohort looks forward to investigating their research projects further and meeting with guest mentors (USF faculty, students, and staff) as they learn more about the best practices for writing and presenting their research in preparation for our spring student conference.

Meet the new junior fellow cohort and hear more about their research interests: 

Encouraged by the positive response and success of the Asia Bridge Junior Fellowship, this fall, the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies launched a new fellowship program for graduate students. Our inaugural cohort of Asia Bridge Graduate Fellows hail from a variety of disciplines, including the MA in Asia Pacific Studies program, International Studies, Psychology, and the School of Education. Brought together by a shared scholarly interest in the Asia-Pacific region and assisted by our Kiriyama Fellow Dr. James Stone Lunde, our graduate fellows will be organizing on-campus events, preparing research papers and presentations, and cultivating networks of academic and professional collaboration over the coming year. 

Reflecting the diversity and interdisciplinary orientation of the fellowship, our graduate students will be working on a wide range of topics: Japanese eco-psychology and sylvan therapy, traditions of Goan eco-feminism, comparative assessments of Sino-American productivity cultures, the Kamikatsu Zero Waste initiative, history and memory at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, and the technological policies in the PRC.

The center welcomes the opportunity to mentor this newest generation of Asia Pacific scholars as they hone the research and professional skills that will serve them in their studies and future careers. 

If you would like to support these and other highly motivated and academically curious driven students who care about the Asia Pacific, please donate here.